This summer has been a good one. It started out a little questionably. I got out of school in May and didn’t have anything solid lined up besides the weddings every weekend. My weekdays were nearly empty and I knew I wanted to fill them with my some meaningful things and possibly make a little extra money. At the beginning of June my friend asked me if I would be interested in working at a restaurant with her. Now I work at this delicious Thai restaurant and I’ve made friends with some darling people there like this girl! Amber is a hard worker and also very fashionable. She likes photography and is planning on studying fashion and photojournalism soon. And she’s crafty– she made the cute flower crowns here too!

Just as the sun was setting I passed off my camera to Amber and asked her to snap a couple shots of me pretending to be a model. Nevermind that my jeans don’t really match the rest of my outfit…

I hope you’ve enjoyed these. Fun portrait shoots like these are one of my favorite kinds. Don’t hesitate to contact me if you’re interested in Senior Portraits or any other kind of shoot!

This photoshoot was completely impromptu. Doesn’t that say a lot about how good Sarah looks on the regular? We meant to go to church together on Sunday when I was visiting in Holland but it turned out that the service was cancelled for some reason so I suggested a photo shoot at the forest preserve and we went with it! I’m pretty excited with how these turned out. Can I tell you something exciting? Notice her ring? Sarah is getting married on my birthday next year, eep!!! I CANNOT wait. Leave me a comment if you like them!

Meet Alyssa. Just another one of my roommates to blog about. (New requirement: if you want photos of yourself to show up on my blog you need to first room with me at some point, ha!). I was about to say that I’ve blogged about all of my roommates but then I remembered that I have 5 roommates in Germany!

Back to Alyssa. She is the gosh-darn most driven woman ever. And the number of internships she’s had? Like 20? In 5 different fields? This summer she’s doing a design internship with Anthropologie. Holla! Sometimes I worry that I’m pushing myself to do too much too young… and then I remember Alyssa and I get back off my butt again. Also, I’m not that much of a coffee drinker… but those chai latte whatever things were amazing.

Meet Daisy! I don’t really know where to start with introducing her because there’s so much to her! Daisy was my roommate freshman year of college so we got to see each other through all the changes that come with that. She has changed her major about three times since then but currently she is majoring in Japanese (as well as Writing, I think) and she’s studying abroad in Japan this semester! Daisy has a beautiful heart for the Lord and missions and hopes to be a missionary there some day as well. I took these pictures of her in January while we both happened to be in the same country for a bit. The little cafe/shop at the end is one that Daisy always went to to get ice cream when she was little. I loved the colors and the chalkboard. I took a few pictures of her on my toy camera as well but I have yet to get that film developed so keep posted!

This is Sree. She was my roommate last Spring! Sree has lived half of her life in India and half of her life in the U.S., moving back and forth a couple times. She asked me to take these pictures for her so she could send them to her mom in India. I asked her if her mom had ever seen snow and she said, yes, but it was a very very long time ago!

Can you believe that I’ve known Erika since preschool? Well… we sort of lost contact during elementary school, but then we were reunited in Middle School and have been close friends since then. I remembered having seen a neat engagement photoshoot done in a parking garage once so I thought Erika would make a great model and it would be an awesome opportunity to try out some off camera lighting. Unfortunately I don’t own the lighting systems yet, but my friend Joe came along and let me try them out. I shot a couple photos on film as well so I’ll be excited to see how those turn out as well.

This is Missy. She is an absolute doll-face. This semester she is studying abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina with one of my other best friends! Even though we met at college in Michigan she actually lives near my home in Illinois so we get to hang on breaks too. This is her dog Kingston. He is quite a gentleman- in the handsome meaning- definitely not calm though (what puppy is?).

Thanks for looking! Please leave a comment if you liked these!

Want pictures of you and your pet? Send me an email and I’d be happy to make a date with you.

Last week I met up with Katie for some portraits. Katie is going to college this fall so you could sort of say that they are senior portraits, except a year late.

Here is my opinion on senior photos— Most of the schools around here book their own photographer that then sets up a studio in the school for all of the seniors to have a fifteen minute shoot. There are some positives to go with this system. Parents don’t have to worry about finding a photographer that will be worth their buck. Then there are negatives- less work for independent photographers. Even still, I think that every senior deserves a little bit more. The studio set-up isn’t for everyone and fifteen minutes isn’t long enough for the grad to get comfortable enough in front of the camera. Although they will vary, most independent portrait sessions will last at least an hour. The student can usually pick the location(s) and be able to infuse their own creative ideas along with the photographer who is only focusing on them. If the grad is excited about the idea of senior portraits being done by an independent photographer then I think the parents should go for it!

Moving on. We got out of the car at the park and we were immediately surrounded by ducks! I jumped out and was immediately on the ground, eye level taking pictures of them. Luckily, Katie was just as enthused at their friendliness as I was.

We then walked around until we found an enclosed grove and Katie pulled out her cello. She started playing right away and I only had to circle her a few times until I had more than enough shots of her passionately playing. Then I was able to listen for a few minutes! I love when my photography jobs include music!

Next, we caught the sunset at this rustic bridge! This park was not short of scenic backgrounds. I will definitely be keeping it in my directory of places to go!

It was not hard to make Katie laugh. Especially in these next pictures where I leaned over so far that I almost fell in the lake. That would be a good excuse to need to upgrade my camera before I go abroad, but it would not be good for my brand new lens!

I hope you love these Katie! I had such a great time hanging out with you that evening. I wish you all the best in college and don’t ever hesitate to ask me for advice.